Wooden low angle plane?

[CroppyBoy1798]

I'm gonna make myself a shooting board......seems about time I did so!

Anyway, I have a Record No5 and hopefully soon a No7, neither of these however are particularly comfortable to use on a shooting board (I tried it using a bench hook and my No5). I was contemplating drilling and tapping a couple of small holes in the side of my No5 and adding a more comfortable grip for use when shooting.....but I dont want to be messing about with my good plane either! :?

So what I was thinking was, perhaps I could make my own plane, solely for shooting board use! A wooden plane using an old, heavy iron/cap iron. I was gonna make a jointer but I figure I'll just buy one. So perhaps this could be my new plane project. What I was wondering also was, low angle planes are better suited to shooting boards, right? Is it possible, or has anyone seen a low angle plane made from wood? Or do low angle planes combined with heavy irons work well?

I know a wooden plane wouldnt have the same mass as a cast iron one, but it could be perhaps weighted with lead inserts? A particularly wider and square wall on say the right side to run in a purpose made track.....

Or, am I just creating a lot of bother for myself?


PS. I should add that I know a 'low angle' plane would be incredibly hard to make out of wood without a super long iron, but would there be any benefit in lowering the angle of the iron bedding?

 

[Alf]

I've seen quite a few wooden planes made for shooting floating about in recent years. Philly makes a Miter Plane for just such a task for instance. The ramp on a wooden plane will tend to chip out at lower angles, hence they're never as low as you can get with a metal plane, but users seem happy.

As an alternative to tapping the #5, how about an Alan Peters stylee fixture that just slips over the cheek of the plane? Dunno if there's any better information about it anywhere - these screencaps are from "The Alan Peters Approach" DVD and the lack of close-ups of it are frustrating to say the least.

 

[yetloh]

A lot depends on what you want to use your shooting board for.

If you mainly want to shoot really nice accurate long grain edges, perhaps for butt jointing, then there is no advantage in the low angle. For this I use a jointer but most jointers don't have the sides at an accurate 90 deg. to the sole, so you have to use the lateral blade adjustment to compensate. Also, as you say, achieving a comfortable grip can be tricky, although I have found this can be done with a litle experimentation. But, for this role, a fettled old wooden jointer is ideal; it can be trued to achieve a true 90 deg. and the inherently low friction surface is an advantage. These old planes are quite easy to pick up cheaply.

If you are going to use it to square end grain or shoot mitres, then a low angle is useful as is the mass of a cast iron plane. I have the luxury of a Lie Nielsen No9 mitre plane for this and it is superb. But these jobs can still be done very satisfactorily with with a big wooden jointer or a Bailey jack or jointer if the blade is good and sharp

Jim

 

[jorgoz]

There is a japanese plane called the reversed blade plane (Kaeshi-Ba-Kanna) and uses a bed angle of 35 degrees. Normally it is used, as the name implies, with it bevel up, but would it be possible to use it bevel side down creating a 35° angled plane ?

 

[Karl]

I've seen quite a few wooden planes made for shooting floating about in recent years. Philly makes a Miter Plane for just such a task for instance. The ramp on a wooden plane will tend to chip out at lower angles, hence they're never as low as you can get with a metal plane, but users seem happy.

Hi Alf

I've got a Philly Mitre. The bedding angle is 38 degrees, bevel down, so not so dissimilar to the EP of a LA plane (12 deg bed + 25 deg hone). No chipping on the ramp on mine (as yet!).

Cheers

Karl

 

[Alf]

Yeah, sorry, Karl - I should have clarified that. I meant going lower than the mid-30° is a problem. I have no doubt at all that Phil wouldn't offer them at 38° if he didn't find they were absolutely a-okay. Indeed I've been trying to persuade myself I need one for a while now.

 

[Vann]

You NEED a Lie-Nielsen No.51 shuting board plane. They only started making them last year because they knew you'd need one soon.

Only $US500.00 (+p&p)..... :shock:

:ho2

Cheers, Vann.

 

[CroppyBoy1798]

Some real good info there, thanks guys!

Vann I NEED a large dissposable wad of cash!

Have to look into them planes jorgoz as well as those handles Alf!

I'll be back!

 

[Alf]

Well I followed up the Alan Peters fixture myself; if anyone wants to have a go it may conceivably make life a little easier: Blog entry

 

[yetloh]

Very nice, Alf. Nicely made and much better looking than the black cowpat.

I too favour a jointer for shooting, especially for long edge butt joints. That may be because my long term West Dean tutor and good friend, Bernard Allen, like Allan Peters also uses a No 7 and block plane almost to the exclusion of everything else except shoulder and other specialist planes. I am a bit more varied in my tastes; I am very fond of jack and panel planes. I generally find smoothers the least useful of bench planes even though they are the most common - am I alone in this?

Jim

 

[woodbloke]

Very nice, Alf. Nicely made and much better looking than the black cowpat.

I too favour a jointer for shooting, especially for long edge butt joints. That may be because my long term West Dean tutor and good friend, Bernard Allen, like Allan Peters also uses a No 7 and block plane almost to the exclusion of everything else except shoulder and other specialist planes. I am a bit more varied in my tastes; I am very fond of jack and panel planes. I generally find smoothers the least useful of bench planes even though they are the most common - am I alone in this?

Jim

I favour the LV LA jack as the first plane I pick up but I also have the LV LA try and BU smoother, all of which get used at the appropriate time, so I guess that of all the planes I have those three would get used most (excluding my LN No9 and LN block)...mainly though it's the LV LA jack - Rob

 

[Richard T]

The Veritas LA BU "smoother", although named "smoother" is really a mitre plane and I use it as such the most - end grain, impossible knots, pencil sharpening etc. Smooths well though. Dead useful.

 

[Alf]

The Veritas LA BU "smoother"

Potential confusion alert! The Veritas Low Angle Smoother can be used as a shooter; the Veritas Bevel Up Smoother doesn't have machined sides and therefore cannot. But they're both very lovely in their own special ways. (Thought I'd get that in there before some poor reader gets hopelessly confused. Honestly, you can see why plane manufacturers in days of yore tended to go with a numbering system, can't you? )

 

[Vann]

Potential confusion alert! ...

And another

...but I also have the LV LA try...

LA try? That'll be the LV BUJ (Bevel Up Jointer) then Rob :?: #-o

Honestly, you can see why plane manufacturers in days of yore tended to go with a numbering system, can't you? )

And LV seem to have this confunding thing down to a fine art.


Cheers, Vann.

 

[CroppyBoy1798]

Well I followed up the Alan Peters fixture myself; if anyone wants to have a go it may conceivably make life a little easier: Blog entry

Thats excellent Alf, great job and pics! Gonna have to have a go at one so!

I did spot a wooden plane online, about the lenght of a fore/jointer plane, it has a skew blade and a grip attached to the side (or the top of the plane in this case), its a Marples plane made specifically for shooting boards! I have seen some shooting boards with a ramp and its suggested that tacking end grain at a slight downward angle makes for easier cutting and gives a better result? Thus if you had a plane with a skewed blade a flat shooting board would suffice?

 

[MusicMan]

I've just started a thread on ramped boards in General Woodworking, perhaps it should have gone here (mods please move if so!).

In a nutshell, yes if you have a skewed iron a normal flat shooting board is fine. A ramped one will spread the wear a bit.

A ramped shooting board is not equivalent to skewing the iron. You are still planing without skew. However, it does spread the wear across a region of the blade.

Keith

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Your wood's on an angle and your plane's not. That skews it, surely?

 

[Harbo]

This thread is nearly 5 yrs old!

 

[MusicMan]

Yes I necroposted, never mind. Phil, no, it's just a diagonal cut just as if you were flattening a bowed board. The plane motion is in line with the cut.

Keith